EDITORIAL: Felony offenses should be target of drug arrests

Friday

Feb 22, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Law enforcement’s job is to keep the communities they serve safe. Does anyone in Tuscaloosa really feel safer this morning after a West Alabama Narcotics Task Force operation resulted in 99 arrests? We doubt it.

Law enforcement’s job is to keep the communities they serve safe. Does anyone in Tuscaloosa really feel safer this morning after a West Alabama Narcotics Task Force operation resulted in 99 arrests? We doubt it.That’s because most of the people arrested were college students, and many of them were booked on misdemeanor possession or paraphernalia charges. Absent from the list of charges were arrests for methamphetamine or crack cocaine, the two drugs that most frequently destroy lives and prompt users to commit property crimes.“I know many people consider it to be a harmless drug,” Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steve Anderson said of the marijuana arrests. “It’s illegal to possess it, distribute and traffic it in the state of Alabama. Therefore, it’s against the law and we’re going to enforce the law no matter how harmless people believe it is.”No one expects Anderson or any other law enforcement officer to ignore the law. But public safety is like anything else. Some things are assigned a higher priority than others. Twenty-eight of the 74 people arrested Tuesday in the operation were charged with nothing more than a misdemeanor. If that’s the result of two months of investigation, we strongly question whether that was a wise use of resources.We don’t have any reservations about felony arrests made. People who possess enough pot to constitute a felony are probably involved in selling it. People who are involved in selling something that is illegal should be arrested.Neither do we have any complaints about arresting flagrant violators, even if only for misdemeanor possession. People shouldn’t be allowed to flout a law.But going undercover to make misdemeanor arrests is another matter. The value to the community is negligible. It won’t affect the flow of illegal drugs, particularly the most harmful ones, into West Alabama. And the damage done to promising young lives is disproportionate to any value the community might accrue.Being young and foolish doesn’t give anyone permission to break the law. But suffering the consequences of an act that didn’t endanger anyone is a pretty harsh consequence of youth and foolishness.Yes, people should think about consequences before breaking the law. But getting arrested for possessing a small amount of marijuana can cost college students scholarships. It can disqualify them from membership in some organizations. And it can make getting a job and becoming a productive citizen difficult.University of Alabama President Judy Bonner issued a statement saying the university had “zero tolerance” for people who sell and distribute drugs on campus. Those are the appropriate people to target. Unfortunately, they do not appear to be the only people affected. We hope university officials will consider that when adjudicating the cases of students who were arrested for misdemeanors.